Fatty amine carboxylate salts, such as fatty amine acetate salts, are common surface active compounds used in many applications.
However, one problem of this class of compounds is that they are solid, non-pourable products at room temperature and often up to about 45° C. or higher, leading to handling problems. The fatty amine carboxylate has to be either melted and poured out from a drum or dug out by hand from the drum.
Further, due to health aspects, handling of solid fatty amine carboxylate salts requires the use of protection masks and protective clothes to protect one self against particles, dust and vapors.
Exposure to the fatty amine carboxylate salts during handling could be avoided if the fatty amine carboxylate salts could exist in liquid form, enabling pouring or pumping of the compound.
Liquid tallow diamine diacetate salts are currently available under the trademark Duomac T36 (available from Akzo Nobel Surface Chemistry AB, Sweden), containing 40% of the tallow diamine diacetate salt dissolved in butyleneglycol and water.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,569,822 relates to a concentrated liquid compositions of fatty diamine acetate salts by using alcohol, water and at least one dissolving agent solvent, where the ratio of fatty diamine acetate salt:dissolving agent solvent is less than or equal to 4:1.
However, both the alcohol and the dissolving agent solvent represent highly flammable compounds.
There exists thus a need in the art for highly concentrated fatty amine carboxylate compositions that do not, or contain only small amounts of, flammable solvents.